Gent, Belgium - a hidden gem of a city

We had about a 45 minute drive to Gent where we stayed for two nights at the Grand Sandton Reylof Hotel and oh what a beautiful place!   We checked into our Double Charm Room (1 of only 2) with the balcony and kind of instantly fell in love with the place!  Not just the hotel but the city too, it is just absolutely one of our favourite places!

Graslei and Korenlei

It was almost dinner time in Gent so we walked into the beautiful historic center where the Lieve and the Leie Rivers meet at what was the former main trade harbor.  We did a big loop of the area snapping pictures of things we didn't know until the next day when we followed a walking tour that I found online. 

The Great Butchers Hall near where the rivers meet

It's funny, spareribs are a speciality in the area so we fund a place called exactly that, Spare Ribs, that we chose for a delicious dinner.  I had 1/2 a chicken and Dave had 1/2 a rack of ribs as well as some more tastes Belgium beers until our tummies were full. We walked around a bit more and decided that we'd  go back to hotel for a nightcap and then go back out to see Gent at night because the lights were supposed to be fantastic but once we got back to the room we were done!

Saturday morning we enjoyed a wonderful spread at breakfast in the hotel  before going out on our city walk which I outline in the pictures.  It was a little drizzly but not enough to ruin our day!  It cleared up later on.

On St. Michael's Bridge

We first saw the medieval skyline from St. Michael's Bridge including the Belfry, St. Bavo's Cathedral,  and St. Nicholas' which make up the famous three tower row.  We went in to the Gothic St. Bavo's that houses the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb a medieval masterpiece that was not to be missed in Gent.  We listened to an audio guide explaining in GREAT detail all of the panels from the 1432 painting by brothers, Hubert and Jan van Eyck. It was really interesting. If you are interested in reading all about it go here.  

The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb

The walk brought us to the Castle of the Counts which we could not wait to explore!  There are only 5 places in Europe where the castle resides in the middle of the city, on level ground and this was one of them from 1180.  The massive fortress was one of the most impressive  medieval castles that we have been in to date.  It was easy to get lost inside the stone walls and forget that we were in the 21st century!   We had fun exploring the different castle rooms and watching the movie from the iPod touch that portrayed different scenes in each room that we visited.  It seemed to be a made-for-the-tour type of thing and was neat.

The Gravensteen or the Castle of the Counts - in the city center!

The Waterhouse on the Beerside is a bar right on the water with over 400 different Belgium beers that we needed to experience and grab a snack.   It was so cozy inside and sure a bit touristy but there were definitely a few locals in there as well! 

We didn't stay too long as we decided that it could be very dangerous for us since the beers were so good :) One of the world's best beers is the The Trappist Beer.  For centuries Trappist Monks have been brewing heavily fermented, malty beers.  The beers are made especially by the monks for the monks and considered a fair trade for a life of celibacy.  Some Trappist Monasteries include Rochefort, Chimay, and Orval which Dave sampled a few of!   It's pretty interesting to read about them - and they are quite tasty!

It was time to get out of there because we had more things we wanted to do including a canal tour. 

Canal rides are a great way to see the city from a different angle!

It was chilly but seeing Gent from the canals seemed so different than how we'd seen it so far.  The tour was in 3 languages, Deutsch, English and French so it was sort of tough to follow but the guide did a really good job of saying the same thing in 3 different languages!  My brain is so used to trying to process what is being said in Deutsch that once he switched over to English I was still processing the Deutsch explanation...and after the visit to the beerhouse and the cold...it was just plain exhausting!  Off the boat and it was finally time to try a Belgium waffle, and boy was it good!

Yum, saving the chocolate on my face for later!

Back at the hotel we relaxed and warmed up with an Irish coffee in the fancy bar before venturing back out for dinner.  We probably should have made reservations but eventually we found a nice little cozy place, the Restaurant Du Progres in the Groenten Markt, that had 1 table available.  After dinner we went back to the beerhouse on the water since we HAD to stay out till dark to see the city all lit up.  Don't laugh, anyone who know us knows that it's a struggle for us to stay out late!  We are glad we did though because seeing Gent at night was so magical!

Beautiful Graslei at night

The next morning we set out to Brussels, the capital of Belgium and part 3 of our Easter Weekend blog posts!  There are alot of pictures in the Gent album, we just couldn't seem to get enough.  There was just something about this little medieval city that we just loved!

LINK TO 130 MORE GENT PICTURES: